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I found a perfect car for my wife (she agrees): an Arc SportWagon in perfect polar white. After some brief research, leasing this car as opposed to financing a purchase appears a good idea for us; however, I know nothing of leasing. Is the deal below any good? Any suggestions for negotiating?

Hi zoozeek. It is a good idea to lease tha Saab 9-5 that you are interested in. Traditionally Saab has offered very attractive leases on its vehicles and the '05 9-5 right now is no exception. It is a lot of car for the money. Since you are new to the world of leasing, you definitely should check out the following informative articles that are available here at Edmunds.com prior to visiting any dealers: 10 Steps to Leasing a New Car and Calculate Your Own Lease Payment.

As far as this car's specific lease program goes, if you were to lease a 2005 Saab 9-5 Arc Wagon through Saab Financial Services Corp. right now for 24 months with 12,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00137 and 59%, respectively. Using these numbers, an MSRP of $38,020 and a selling price of $31,311, I estimate that this vehicle should have a zero down, pre-tax monthly payment of around $444. In your post you mentioned that you are going to pay $2,638 at lease signing, including a down payment and SFSC's $595 acquisition fee. There's nothing wrong with paying the acquisition fee at lease signing, but I always advise consumers against making any sort of down payment when leasing. I do so for two main reasons. The first is if your vehicle is totaled in an accident or stolen during your lease, your insurance company pays off the bank that you were leasing it through and your down payment essentially disappears. The second main reason is that down payments on leased vehicles do nothing to reduce their lease-end purchase prices. So your lease-end purchase option price for your 9-5 would be exactly the same, regardless of whether you had put $2,000 down, or had made absolutely no down payment at all. Just in case your interested, your pre-tax monthly payment for this vehicle with a $2,000 down payment should be around $358.

I am interested in leasing the 9-5 Aero sedan. I am interested in a 36 month lease with 15000 miles per year. Until recently, I believe that the Saab website showed an employee discount price in the 34K range, however it now shows "contact your dealer." Furthermore, I believe that Edmunds was showing a $2,500 marketing incentive until this past week. Any idea what I might expect in a cap cost, money factor, and residual? Thanks

Hi lmiller. The 2005 Saab 9-5 still qualifies for General Motors' employee pricing program, so the selling price that you saw quoted for it last month is probably still about the same. GM is currently providing $3,000 lease cash on all 2005 9-5 models. If you were to lease a 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero Sedan through Saab Financial Services Corp. right now for 36 months with 15,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00132 and 44%, respectively.

However, I'm just a bit confused about the $595 acquisition fee and $283 DMV fee. Are these negotiable? Must I pay them upfront? Are they in addition to the down payment and monthly payments, or are they included in these figures? Is it realistic to get this car for $11,000 total outlay over 2 years, and if now, what is the realistic amount?

How did you find the SFSC money factor? Is this published information? Is it negotiable? Can a dealership charge a higher rate than .00137? Finally, the car is being sold for $29,311 without negotiations, but the lease net price is $31,311 without negotiation. What is the correct sales price to use for calculating the depreciation?

You're very welcome zoozeek. Saab Financial Services Corp. charges an acquisition fee of $595 on all leases. Individual dealers do not have the authority to waive this charge. I am not sure what sort of charge is appropriate for the registration of your vehicle in your state though. Neither of these charges would be included in the down payment of any advertised lease. I can't tell you what the total cost of your lease of this car would be without knowing its full MSRP and an approximate selling price for it.

Zoozeek, I am not aware of any source that provides information on banks' buy rate lease money factors and residual values to the general public. Dealerships cannot lower banks' published residual values, but they usually are allowed to mark them up a little bit to add additional back-end profit to deals. Vehicles' residual values are always based upon a percentage of their full MSRPs including destination charges.

Thanks for the additional information, zoozeek. Let's calculate a sample lease payment on this car for you. According to my calculations, if you were to lease a 2005 Saab 9-5 Arc Wagon with an MSRP of $38,020 and a selling price of $31,311 through Saab Financial Services Corp. right now for 24 months with 12,000 miles per year, its zero down, pre-tax monthly payment should be around $444.

Interested in leasing 05 9-5 Aero for 36 / 15k year. Any information on current deals, estimated monthly's with 0 down. This will be my 3rd Saab lease and the information I have learned here prior to my negotiations has helped immensely in the previous two.

In addition, does GM currently have a "pull ahead" program to exit my current lease before expiration?

Hi sah2. I would be happy to give you an idea of what Saab's lease program on this car is currently like. However, in order to estimate what its lease payment should be for you I need you to provide me with the full MSRP including the destination charge) and an approximate selling price for the exact car that you want. If you were to lease a 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero Sedan through Saab Financial Services Corp. right now for 36 months with 15,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00029 and 44%, respectively. When negotiating your lease on this car, make sure to take the $3,000 dealer cash that Saab is providing on leases of it and $500 bonus cash ($3,500 total) into account.

Saab was running a "pull ahead" program for lessees whose contracts were scheduled to end on or before 4/30/06, but unfortunately I believe that it expired a few days ago.

Hello hintz. Here's the info that you're looking for. If you were to lease a 2006 Saab 2.3T Sedan through Saab financial Services Corp. right now for 24 months with 12,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00112 and 69%, respectively. The numbers for an otherwise identical 36 month lease should be .00112 and 53%.

I am in the process of leasing my first vehicle and am frazzled. It is a 2006 9-5 Saab, manual approximately $36K msrp. The dealer is offering a 27 month lease, 15K miles per year at $474 per month with approximately $1450 down (includes 1st month, sec. deposit, bank fee).

Does this seem good or should I stick with the 24 month, 12K miles saab deal at $399/month ($2,999 due at signing)?

Hi axey. You never mentioned the selling price of the car that you are interested in leasing. This is an important number for you as a consumer to know for two reasons. First, the selling prices of leased vehicles can be negotiated, just as if you were paying cash for them. Without knowing the price of the car that you want to lease you don't know how good a price you are getting it for. The second reason is that one needs the selling price of a vehicle that they want to lease is that it is necessary to calculate its lease payment. I would be more than happy to give you my opinion on the lease that you were quoted if you let me know what this car's selling price is.

I am trying to lease a 9-5 saab and have been offered 2 deals: msrp $36,869 27 mo.at $533 per month and msrp $40,005 27 month at $583 with no money down. Both of these offers are for 15,000 miles. This seems high to me. Can I do better than this.

Hello jones14. You never mentioned the selling price of the cars that you are interested in leasing. This is an important number for you as a consumer to know for two reasons. First, the selling prices of leased vehicles can be negotiated, just as if you were paying cash for them. Without knowing the price of the car that you want to lease you don't know how good a price you are getting it for. The second reason is that one needs the selling price of a vehicle that they want to lease is that it is necessary to calculate its lease payment. I would be more than happy to give you my opinion on these deals if you let me know what these cars' selling prices are.

My 4-year lease ends on 8/31 and Saab Financial Services customer service reps claim that the purchase option (residual value which was calculated 4 years ago) is non-negotiable. They would rather have the customer lease/buy a new vehicle (obviously) and will waive my last payments IF I lease/buy a new GM vehicle. Since this is not what I wish to do, do you know of any possible way to negotiate the purchase price?

Hi mlerner3. There certainly is no guarantee that Saab Financial Services Corp. will negotiate your car's lease-end purchase price. It seems as though you were not able to make any progress in your negotiations with your initial contact there. Some consumers who have struck out on their initial negotiation attempt have had success by working their way up the corporate ladder to a manager. Give it a shot, you don't have anything to lose.

Hello sweeney4. If you were to lease a 2006 Saab 9-5 SportCombi through Saab Financial Services Corp. right now for 36 months with 15,000 miles per year, its base lease rate and residual value should be 2.69% and 52%, respectively. As you can see, SFSC uses lease rates instead of money factors to calculate vehicles' monthly payments. You can convert its published lease rates into approximate money factor equivalents by dividing them by 2400.

A major part of your monthly lease payment is the prorated depreciation of the car.Higher residual value = lower payment and vice-versa.By attempting to negotiate a lower buy figure you are essentially double-dipping,in other words you want the advantage of a lower end of lease purchase price without having paid the higher monthly lease payment the lower residual value would have yielded.The leasing company has every right to hold a firm line on this.Conversely,if the current market value on your vehicle was HIGHER than the contract stated price you could not be made to pay a higher price.Fairs fair!!!

Can you provide the money factor and residual for a 36 month lease at 15,000 miles per year for a 9.5 sedan (2.3T) with Sentronic automatic transmission, visibility package, ventilated seats, and metallic paint? Thanks.

You must a very bad Leasing company if they do not neg. the sale price before you lease a car. I always make sure I get any rebates and/or discounts when leasing.My last Jeep had 4k off the top plus they threw in the Nav. for free.I usually do not go through the dealer unless they have a subvented lease. The Leasing company I deal with always works with a high volume dealer in the area and gets the best price before we do the lease. I have never been disappointed.

For sure! You need to know the sale price and it needs to be as low as possible. The interest payment on the lease is based on this. The residual amount is usually a percentage of the sale price so if you lower the sale price, you lower the residual. Your payment is simply depreciation amount + interest + taxes (if any). I would not lease without these three firm numbers.